


One-Time Deal for One Night Only

by dare121



Category: The Last of Us
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Friendship, Slow Dancing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-05
Updated: 2018-07-05
Packaged: 2019-06-05 21:15:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15179561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dare121/pseuds/dare121
Summary: She’s radiant.The way she moves makes Ellie’s knees feel weak.or, Ellie watches Dina dance and Jesse teases her about it.





	One-Time Deal for One Night Only

**Author's Note:**

> fluff fluff fluff fluff fluff
> 
> idk where this came from but im into it - hope you are, too!

She’s radiant.

The way she moves makes Ellie’s knees feel weak, even though she’s sitting on a chair at one of the many tables scattered around the barn.

Her smiles lights up the whole building.

“Figured she wouldn't need to put on a show anymore.” Jesse’s voice is slightly mischievous without meaning any harm, and Ellie looks away from Dina’s flushed cheeks, looks down at her drink instead. “Guess she likes to know you're watching.” He elbows her and Ellie lets out a soft snort of derision.

“Shut up,” she says without malice before taking a sip of her sweetened alcohol. She likes the idea of Dina enjoying her gaze entirely too much.

Chuckling, Jesse takes a swig from his own glass, his eyes following Dina across the dance floor, where she has Marion trapped in an elaborate waltz. The time for Ellie feeling jealous of Jesse has long since passed and she doesn't detect a hint of longing in his appraisal. Instead, he just seems amused.

“You know, I always thought she was too much for me to handle,” he says casually, and they both smile when Dina somehow manages to convince Marion to lift her. “And I definitely thought she was too much for _you_ to handle.”

Another soft snort from Ellie.

“Definitely right about that,” she comments, glad that Jesse can pretty much carry a conversation all by himself. No matter how many years pass them by, Ellie never quite manages to figure out the finer details of communicating with other people.

Together, they observe as Dina finishes her dance and falls into a curtsy, before twirling around. Her eyes sweep the room as though she’s looking for her next victim, and Ellie smirks quietly into the rim of her glass when Dina’s gaze locks on someone leaning against the wall of the barn not too far away from her.

“Oh, this ought to be good,” Jesse says, clearly having spotted the same thing Ellie has.

“Yeah,” Ellie agrees quietly, leaning back in her chair. She feels almost as though she’s getting comfortable for a show.

Dina starts off small, with just a hand stretched towards the man who’s been nursing the same glass of juice all evening. For a second, he seems confused, then his lips twitch into the barest hint of a smile and he shakes his head.

“If he thinks that's enough to get him out of this, he isn't as smart as I always thought he was,” Jesse murmurs to Ellie, as though afraid someone might overhear him and get the info back to Joel, who looks about as ready to dance as a pile of rocks next to the barn.

Ellie doesn't say anything, but she has to work hard to keep her veneer of quiet stoicism when Dina walks forward and wraps her hand around Joel’s forearm. At another beaming smile and a few words, he finally relents, setting his glass down on one of the many bar tables scattered around the place.

“Oh!” Jesse whispers as though he's the announcer at some old-world sports event, his hands cupped around his mouth. “And she's got him!”

“Joel’s gonna kill you one day,” Ellie says, running the tip of her finger along the rim of her glass, her eyes focused entirely on Dina’s smiling face as she wraps her arms around Joel’s neck and forces him into a slow dance. He’s wearing his best flannel and he’s even trimmed his beard, which Ellie takes to be a great honor.

“Nah, he won't,” Jesse retorts, finishing the contents of his glass. “I know he loves me. I can hear it in his voice every time he yells at me.” She snorts quietly, and he seems pleased at her reaction.

Meanwhile, Ellie’s pretty sure she can spot the hint of a blush on Joel’s hairy cheeks, and she can't wait to get home so she can tease him mercilessly about it.

Watching him dance with Dina is a funny sight, mainly because he's so much taller than her and has to stoop to be able to listen to what she's saying. The music isn't really designed for the way they're swaying slowly, but Dina doesn't seem to care. Probably because she knows that asking Joel to swing his ass any harder wouldn't get her very far.

“I hope Harris is filming this,” Jesse says almost to himself, his eyes alight with something akin to awe. “I want to watch this every day for the rest of my life.”

Unlike with Marion, Dina doesn’t drag out the dance until the end of the song. As soon as she can feel Joel getting antsy, she lets him go. Ellie notices it in the way he holds himself, in the way his eyes flit about the room, and she knows Dina has grown accustomed to reading Joel almost as well as she can.

Dina curtsies for him, too, and Ellie is still sure his face is flushed with bashful happiness as he returns to his vantage point against the wall of the barn. She hopes he’s aware of the unending teasing in his future.

“Who will be her next victim,” Jesse whispers conspiratorially, before getting to his feet. “I’m getting another drink - you want anything?” He glances down at her mostly empty glass. “Same again?”

“Sure,” she agrees absentmindedly. She’s not going to be drunk from two watered down glasses of juice and alcohol. Besides, she wants to remember everything about this night for the rest of her possibly short life. It’s why her eyes don’t stray from Dina until Jesse touches her shoulder to make her look up.

“I’m really happy for you, dude. I don’t think I’ve said that before.” He smiles down at her, and she feels the urge to duck her head. “Way to go.” He holds out his fist to her, and she bumps it softly with her own, even though she still kind of wants to disappear into the nearest dark corner.

Ellie watches his retreating back for a moment as he strides off towards the bar, and it’s those few seconds where she’s distracted that leave her open to an attack.

“Hey,” Dina says as she plops her ass down on Ellie’s lap, her left arm immediately wrapping around Ellie’s neck. “What were you and Jess talking about?” Like always, she steals Ellie’s glass and empties the remnants of the drink into her own mouth. “Looked like you were scheming.”

Once she’s recovered from the initial shock that Dina’s presence always leaves her with, especially when she turns up on Ellie’s lap unannounced, Ellie wraps her own arms around Dina’s waist and holds her close. It’s an instinct she’s never been able to shake, no matter how mad she gets at her partner.

Dina sets Ellie’s glass down on the table and uses her now free hand to stroke a piece of hair behind Ellie’s ear. Her loving gaze makes Ellie’s stomach turn with butterflies, and she can hardly keep herself from leaning forward and capturing Dina’s lips in a fiery kiss that would make everyone else inside the barn roll their eyes with an all too familiar exasperation.

“We were discussing how long it would take for Joel to stab everyone else on the dance floor,” Ellie says, her eyes studying the small intricacies of Dina’s beautiful face. The freckles scattered around her nose, the small scar above her left eyebrow, the beauty marks under her right ear.

“Shut up,” Dina replies, tipping forward and giving Ellie that sweet kiss she’s been wanting without being prompted. “You think you’re cute, but you’re actually not all that funny.” Her fingers play with the small hairs at the base of Ellie’s head, her mouth curled into the sweetest smile Ellie has ever seen.

“I thought you married me for my humor?” Ellie asks quietly, mindful to keep their gentle flirting low enough so that no one else can hear them. After years of being together, she no longer minds the public displays of affection - they come with the territory of dating Dina - but she’s not quite ready to give up on the pretense that she’s a tough woman. Even though she doesn’t think anyone buys her act anymore.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Dina chides her, that smile still on her face. “I married you strictly for your _ass_. I don’t think you realize how nice it looks in those jeans you wear.”

At twenty-four years of age, there are no lines around Dina’s eyes, but Ellie imagines what that smile might look like in another ten years.

“You’re rude,” she says, pinching Dina’s back with her fingers. “This marriage hasn’t been consummated yet. I can still have it annulled.” Their ceremony had been a simple little thing right here in the barn, and the thought of undoing all of that happiness makes her feel more than queasy. Even for a joke.

But then Dina laughs and the feeling is washed away by the tide of bliss that sweeps across Ellie all over again.

“Now who’s the rude one?” She slides her hands along Ellie’s neck and up to cup her cheeks. “I promised my life to you, and this is how you repay me?” Her thumb moves gently across a fading scar on Ellie’s right cheek. “You’re not getting rid of me now, Ellie.”

They’re six years into their relationship and yet Ellie still feels as though her bones have all been turned into liquid at Dina’s words. She can’t do much more than hold on tighter when Dina pulls her into another kiss.

“I leave you alone for five seconds,” Jesse says from behind them, a look of amusement on his face. He sets Ellie’s new glass on the table next to the empty one and smirks at Dina. “Nice work there with Joel.” He salutes her with his drink.

“Just trying to keep him healthy,” Dina replies, her fingers going back to playing with Ellie’s hair, though not without stealing another healthy gulp of Ellie’s new drink first. “What about you? Where's James?”

Ellie only half listens as they continue to talk. Her mind is too preoccupied with soaking in the feeling of the evening, and marvelling at the fact that she’s here. She’s just gotten married to the woman of her dreams. She’s alive. And she's _happy._ It feels unreal, especially in moments like this, where she’s half-expecting for something to go wrong. She counts seconds in her brain as she watches Dina’s carefree smile, and when half a minute has gone by without a bomb going off somewhere, Ellie drags herself back to the barn, away from her fears.

“You wanna dance?” Ellie asks when there’s a lull in conversation between Dina and Jesse. The words come out without her permission, but she doesn't try to take them back, not when Dina immediately perks up at the suggestion. She’s off of Ellie’s lap in less than a second, her hand curled around one of Ellie’s.

“Sorry to leave you like this, Jess, but my woman demands my attention,” she says with a wide grin, her words making Ellie roll her eyes. Jesse chuckles when they leave him, Dina’s hand tugging Ellie along too fast for her to change her mind.

They stop in one of the quieter corners of the dance floor and Dina immediately draws Ellie close.

“Is this your present for me because I married you?” she asks with a grin, her eyes alight with a soft teasing Ellie can never get enough of. “One-time deal for one night only?”

Feeling entirely powerless to resist, Ellie curls her arms around Dina and draws her into a kiss.

“Dick,” she whispers lovingly, moving slowly along to the music.

“That’s _Mrs_. Dick to you.” Dina looks too pleased with herself at that one, but Ellie does little more than press her beaming smile against the side of Dina’s hair. Her chest feels too full with happiness and she’s not sure how to deal with it.

Dina is her wife.

Her _wife_.

“We got married,” Ellie says with a touch of wonder in her voice. At fourteen, she thought she was going to die too many times to count. And even after she came to Jackson, she could never quite shake the feeling that she wouldn't live for much longer. But now she’s twenty-five, and she isn't just alive anymore. She feels like she’s _thriving_ , even, as ridiculous as that sounds in her own head.

“Mhh,” Dina hums gently in agreement, “you put on your best flannel and made an honest woman out of me.” Her cheek is placed on Ellie’s shoulder and there's nothing sarcastic about her words. “Are you still good with that decision?”

With a smile, Ellie looks down at the beaten old ring on her finger that she got from Joel.

“Yeah,” she says softly, closing her eyes and allowing herself to feel safe in Dina’s arms. Just for now, just for this moment. "I am."

**Author's Note:**

> ok so idk if it's been stated whether or not ellie is older than dina or vise-versa but in this fic let's just assume ellie is a yr older
> 
> anyway who cares i had a lot of fun with this and i hope you liked it!
> 
> if you want to support me, find me on tumblr @goshdarnitjay
> 
> this was beta-d by the lovely plushkiwi ♥


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